Office of Financial Aid

2011-2012 FAFSA Renewal Reminder

The Department of Education will soon be sending information about filing your 2011-2012 Renewal FAFSA. A Renewal Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is designed for students who applied for aid the previous year. Using the Renewal FAFSA application streamlines the application process because you do not have to enter basic information since it is uploaded from the previous year's database.

To ensure that you will be able to take advantage of the Renewal FAFSA for next year, please update your addresses and or email addresses on your current years FAFSA application so that the Department of Education's Renewal Reminders are sent to the correct address.

Students can update their contact information by visiting the FAFSA on the Web site at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Contact information can be viewed via the "Make Corrections" section of the site.

In order to complete your FAFSA online, you must have a PIN number. If you do not remember your PIN number, you may access the following website:www.pin.ed.gov

Did you miss the Financial Aid Workshops?

If you were unable to attend the Loan Repayment and Personal Budgeting workshops, you can view the video of the session by clicking here. You must have Real Player installed on your computer.

Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation to follow along with the session. If you have any questions please contact our office at 312-906-5180.

Bar Study Loan Information

Bar Examination loans are intended to assist students in paying for bar preparation courses and meeting other financial needs while studying for the Bar Exam.

Students may submit the application for the Bar Exam Loan funds during their last year before graduation. The terms, conditions and credit criteria for Bar Examination Loans are similar to those for alternative loan programs. Unfortunatley, students with negative credit ratings are generally not eligible for Bar Exam loans.

To apply for a Bar Examination Loan, review the Bar Loan Comparison Chart, select one of the lenders, and complete their on-line application.

2010-2011 Financial Aid Instructions

In past academic years, the Illinois Institute of Technology participated in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). FFELP allows students to borrow federal student loans from private lenders (usually banks or credit unions). On March 30, 2010, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 was signed into law. This law includes a provision that eliminates the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) beginning July 1, 2010. For this reason, beginning in the fall semester of 2010 all Title IV eligible higher education institutions, including IIT, are required to participate in the Direct Loan Program (DL). The Direct Loan Program is a federal student loan program that allows students to borrow funds “directly” from the U.S. Department of Education. DL Subsidized Stafford, Unsubsidized Stafford and Graduate PLUS loans operate in essentially the same manner as in the FFEL program. Students receive the same fixed interest rates (except the Graduate PLUS has a lower interest rate at 7.9%) and have similar repayment options. Payments made by the borrower are sent directly to the U.S. Department of Education’s servicing company.

Because of this change, all students who borrowed loans in 2009-2010 and plan on borrowing federal loans in 2010-2011 will need to complete new Federal Direct Loan Master Promissory Note(s) (MPN) and Federal Direct Loan Entrance Counseling. If you wish to receive loan funds for the 2010-2011 academic year, you must do the following:

Complete your 2010-2011 FAFSA if you have not already done so. It can take up to 2 weeks to receive a financial aid award notification once your FAFSA is complete.

Log on to the myIIT portal to view your financial aid award.

Complete the Estimated Cost Worksheet. This form helps you determine the amount of Graduate Plus or Stafford loan funds you will need to accept in order to meet your expenses for the academic year.

Accept the amounts of Federal Direct Stafford and Federal Direct Graduate PLUS loans that you would like to receive via the myIIT portal. It is to your advantage to accept the maximum Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford loan before you accept the Federal Direct Graduate PLUS loan. Please refer to the Financial Aid Guide on the Chicago-Kent financial aid website for the different types of Federal loans that are available.

Complete a Federal Direct Loan Promissory Note for the corresponding loans that you have accepted. Only one promissory note is needed for both the Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loan.

Free Credit Report

Did you know that you are now able to
receive a free credit report once every 12 months?
We encourage students to review their credit reports
annually to check for inaccuracies and identify any
suspicious activity.

To receive your free credit report,
please visit the following link: http://www.annualcreditreport.com.
This central site allows you to request a free credit
file disclosure, commonly called a credit report,
once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer
credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and
TransUnion.

Please be aware that other sites may
advertise free credit reports, but this is the only
site that is sponsored by the federal government and
the three nationwide credit reporting agencies. Other
sites may charge fees.